Latest news with #GenZ
The Star
2 hours ago
- Business
- The Star
AI dating app features aren't landing with Gen Z, new survey finds
Bumble has similarly wrestled with revenue and paid-user slumps in recent quarters. — AP Dating app companies' sizable investments in artificial intelligence could be in vain as Gen Z users remain wary of the new AI features, a new Bloomberg Intelligence survey found. Gen Z, which broadly dates less than older cohorts, reported higher discomfort than millennials with using AI to draft profile prompts and responses to messages, or to modify profile pictures, according to a survey of nearly 1,000 US respondents. The questionnaire was conducted by Attest on behalf of BI between May 15 and 29. For many users, this new class of features may also be superfluous. The research found that nearly 50% of respondents didn't have problems creating a profile on their own, without the assistance of AI, and that most don't struggle having conversations with potential suitors. The report did not mention any companies by name, but the AI features it describes are available today – including profile photo selection on Tinder and Bumble, and prompt suggestions on Hinge. The findings suggest these tools may not be addressing user needs, which could, in turn, threaten margins if these features aren't widely used, said BI technology analyst Nicole D'Souza, who wrote the report. The findings underscore the challenges that companies such as Match Group Inc and Bumble Inc face as they invest heavily in AI to court the key demographic of younger users, who have different social mores than other generations. While many of these apps were created and designed around millennials' habits, Gen Z is more likely to abstain from dating, according to D'Souza. And those who do participate are choosing long-term relationships over casual ones. Pandemic-era isolation may have also led them to prefer meeting people in person, she added. The shift has resulted in eight straight quarters of subscriber declines at Match, which owns brands like Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid. Rival Bumble has similarly wrestled with revenue and paid-user slumps in recent quarters. Match chief executive officer Spencer Rascoff, who took the top job in February, has said his company failed to "recognise and respond to changes in the younger demographic' as millennials aged up. Executives at Match have pointed to the use of AI as a way of boosting engagement among Gen Z, which now makes up about half of the monthly active users at Tinder, Match's largest brand. But BI's D'Souza suggests "AI can't rescue dating apps' if Gen Z is dating less and more hesitant to pay for subscriptions. The discomfort with the use of AI tools may also signal "a potential disconnect between product strategy and user sentiment,' she wrote. Apps that cater to Gen Z's preferences are faring better with young users. Hinge, a service known for emphasising long-term relationships, has been able to sustain double-digit subscriber growth. Tinder, meanwhile, has struggled to shake its reputation as a "hookup app,' and executives have recognised the need to revamp it and prioritise user needs over short-term profit. Some of its new products are meant to help reinvent the brand, such as a double-dating option that Tinder is positioning as a low-pressure way for people to meet dates with friends. – Bloomberg
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Skin city
A doc & his Mrs on turning the clock back Antiaging – that's the new buzz word. I lowered my newspaper and smiled intelligently at my wife after providing my Gyaan of the Day. She frowned, 'Not just aunties, uncles are also aging. Even though they dye their hair jet black and refuse to accept their fifty shades of grey.' Kamala makes everything a feminism debate nowadays. But aging is one sphere where there is gender parity. I'm talking about trends…like Botox. She narrowed her eyes: 'If you're going to be vulgar I'm leaving. You don't have to be rude about my burgeoning backside.' Kamala listens to a lot of Shashi Tharoor speeches. I wasn't referring to booty but to beauty treatments – like fillers. These are much needed as we age. I'm sure she understood me, but she decided to throw in a socio-political comment to sound superior: 'Whether it's Delhi or Mumbai or Bengaluru, all cities need their roads repaired and potholes filled. Bridges need to be maintained and checked regularly.' So also the human face and body (I was sticking to my topic). Sometimes it needs a little boost. A little correction. A touch of treatment. So we can look like Gen Z bro. Yolo. Kamala sat back on the armchair and looked deeply philosophical: 'You know, this generation has it all sorted. Now they have a drug for weight loss. Like our 2-minute noodles they can lose weight instantly with minimum effort. Though some of the brand ambassadors are looking a bit like the living dead. Gauntie-aging!' She has a habit of creating words and hoping people make it the Oxford word of the year. It doesn't prevent brain rot, I countered. It's like painting an old dilapidated building while it's crumbling from the foundation. Kamala perked up: 'That's what we should do! Add more layers – cleanser, toner, hyaluronic, glycolic, sunscreen, retinol and finally foundation. Nothing survives without a good foundation.' I smiled at her indulgently. I was about to say something trite like age is just a number. But she beat me to it: 'Your silly sense of humour keeps me laughing. All said and done, together with good healthy food, regular exercise and adequate sleep, laughter is the best medicine.' We have an appointment with a qualified dermatologist tomorrow – I hope he has a sense of humour. I'm not complaining. Maybe that is the anti-aging mantra: Not complaining. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Business Insider
5 hours ago
- Business Insider
Gen Z doesn't want to say 'hello' when answering the phone. I'm concerned.
If you're over the age of 28, my guess is you're confused by this question. Of course you say "hello" when picking up the phone. But Gen Z — a generation raised in a post-landline universe — may disagree. They expect you — the person calling — to speak first. A recent viral tweet brought up this alarming etiquette divide. Someone who works in recruiting tweeted that she's noticed that when she calls Gen Z people (at their scheduled call time), they often wait for her to speak first instead of saying "hello." The replies to her tweet were even more eye-opening — to me, anyway: Many young people agreed that it should be the caller's responsibility to start speaking and offer a greeting, not the person answering the call. The reasons these people gave settled into two main camps: The first is the huge amount of spam calls we all receive. (They are annoying.) Often, those telemarketers or robocalls don't start until they hear someone say "hello." By remaining silent when you pick up, you can screen for a real human. Gen Z is wary of scammers Spam calls are a scourge, and it's hard to complain about anyone's tactics to avoid them. And yet there's gotta be a better way, right? (I must note here that in my experience as someone who almost always answers unknown calls, since they may be work-related, if I say "This is Katie" instead of "Hello," it seems to stump the robocall software, which activates on the word "hello." I would recommend you all try this technique, but you'll have better results if you use your own name instead of "Katie.") Another concern is that scammers might use a recording of your voice saying "hello" to clone it for use in other scams. There is some real concern here. Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, told me there's scant data on how often this happens, but it's a real thing. "If you must respond, a neutral, non-personal greeting like 'Who is this?' may be less useful for cloning because it is less emotionally expressive and less common as a voice sample," Briedis said. (Personally, I think that's more rude than just silently breathing into the receiver, but hey.) Etiquette is changing The other reason some people are avoiding the "hello" seems to be a generational difference in etiquette. Some young people simply believe that if you're the one who is calling, you should initiate the conversation. If that makes your blood pressure start to rise, like it does with me, let's take a deep breath together and try to think about this kindly. Are young people hopelessly adrift in society, untethered from being capable of the most basic elements of communication? Is this perhaps related to the "so-called " Gen Z stare" where young people in customer service situations blankly stare back at you (or avoid eye contact, wordlessly)? I'm not saying it's not that. I think that saying "hello" when you answer the phone is normal, commonly accepted social etiquette, and not doing it can be slightly confusing for a caller. But just because something used to be common etiquette doesn't mean it has to stay that way. The telephone is a relatively recent invention in the history of human communication, as is the word "hello," which Thomas Edison encouraged as the way to start a conversation on the new invention in the 1870s. Not until the 1940s did the majority of American households have their own phone. A whole new etiquette for handling phone calls has been invented within a generation or two. Landline phones had different customs As an elder millennial, I grew up with a home landline without caller ID, answering with variations of, "Notopoulos residence, this is Katie." I've also had jobs with desk phones where strangers would call out of the blue (gasp!) and I would answer with the company name, my full name, maybe even a rote "How can I help you?" Might we have possibly missed out on the Beastie Boys' album "Hello Nasty" if not inspired by the way the receptionist at the Nasty Little Man PR firm answered the phone? But just within my (relatively) brief time as an adult, the way we use phones and what we do with them has changed drastically. Now, when you call someone, you assume you are reaching their direct personal mobile phone, not a shared family phone that other people might answer. Answering machine outgoing messages used to be an art form; now people rarely leave or check voicemail (I usually read the transcription in my iPhone's Visual Voicemail instead of actually listening to the recording). There's a new calculus we're all still muddling through about what should be a Zoom and what should be a regular phone call. I'm often texting or emailing someone several times to agree on a set time do to a five-minute phone call. When I do call someone out of the blue, I find myself apologizing for it, as if I had shown up on their doorstep unannounced at dinnertime. I enjoy waxing nostalgic about the Old Days of Landlines, but it doesn't mean any of the old ways were necessarily better. Progress marches on!
Newsweek
6 hours ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Quarter of Millennial, Gen Z Used Family Money to Buy New Homes
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Nearly one in four young Americans who recently purchased a home relied on family money—either as a cash gift or inheritance—for their down payment, according to a survey commissioned by Redfin. Why It Matters The findings, published on Monday, highlight the growing role of family support for millennial and Generation Z homebuyers, as housing affordability worsens nationwide due to increased prices, historically high mortgage rates and less consumer confidence in the long-term economy. The total number of unsold homes in the U.S. in June was up 20 percent compared with a year earlier, according to while inventory was up by 28.9 percent year-over-year. In the same month, pending home sales were down 1.6 percent from June 2024. Sellers have also had to wait a little longer, as homes last month spent a median of 53 days on the market before going under contract, five more days than a year ago. What To Know The Redfin-commissioned survey of 4,000 U.S. residents conducted by Ipsos in May found that 23.8 percent of recent Gen Z and millennial homebuyers had tapped family money for their down payment. Of those, 20.7 percent reported using a cash gift from family, and about 11 percent had received an inheritance. About 18 percent said they were able to save for a down payment by living with family or friends, illustrating multiple forms of intergenerational support in the current market. Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin, told Newsweek via phone on Monday that the survey's results mimic concerns of the past three or four years going back to the COVID pandemic. The younger aspiring buyers still face massive hurdles today. "The ones who are successfully able to buy are relying on family support because most of us who are buying homes already own homes, and oftentimes you're able to use the equity from your first house to fund the next house," Zhao said. "But for a first-time home buyer, they're at a disadvantage." The root of this is home prices increasing about 45 percent for two years before the pandemic, Zhao said, with prices not really falling while mortgage rates simultaneously doubled. Millennials and Gen Z are more often going to their parents and families for financial assistance in putting a down payment on a home, with housing prices still in flux after the pandemic. Millennials and Gen Z are more often going to their parents and families for financial assistance in putting a down payment on a home, with housing prices still in flux after the pandemic. Getty Images More than half—56.5 percent—of Gen Z and millennial homebuyers reported saving directly from their paychecks, making this the most common path to a down payment. Other methods included selling stock investments (20.4 percent), working a second job (17.6 percent), selling cryptocurrency (12.7 percent) and receiving help from government or nonprofit organizations (less than 12 percent). "A lot of them are still relying on their own savings, but a lot of the time your own savings isn't enough unless if you're making an extremely high salary in a lot of markets," Zhao said. "And for the parents and their families who are investing in their kids, I think they recognize that there is this sort of need to do that if you want your kids to own a house." Historically, if you're looking to buy a house and determining mortgage payments, broadly speaking, past homebuyers could afford a monthly payment of about 30 percent or less of a median family's income, Zhao added. "Affordability has just gotten completely out of whack," she said. "So, now we are way above that affordability threshold. For parents of the younger generation who lived through this time period, they can see that happening. It's only all that surprising that a lot of families are willing to help the younger generation." The survey results came as home prices and mortgage payments reached near record highs across the country. The typical down payment rose to about $63,000 in 2024, a 7.5 percent increase from the previous year and equivalent to 16.3 percent of the median purchase price. Wage growth has failed to keep pace with escalating housing costs, making it increasingly challenging for younger Americans to afford a home on their own incomes. What People Are Saying Dan Close, Redfin Premier agent in Chicago, said in a statement: "People need to live somewhere, and living somewhere costs money. The problem right now: housing costs too much for a lot of people. Some of those people live with their parents, and some are lucky enough to get help from their parents for a down payment and/or their monthly housing payments. In cases where that's an option, it's not a bad time to buy and start building equity because it's a buyer's market and lots of sellers are giving concessions." What Happens Next With affordability challenges and high down payments persisting, reliance on family assistance may continue defining how young Americans enter the housing market. The data suggests intergenerational wealth could shape homeownership rates and patterns among Gen Z and millennials if current trends hold.
Business Insider
6 hours ago
- Business Insider
Gen Z doesn't want to say 'hello' when answering the phone. I'm concerned.
When you answer the phone, do you say "hello" or offer some sort of greeting right away, or do you expect the caller to initiate the conversation? If you're over the age of 28, my guess is you're confused by this question. Of course you say "hello" when picking up the phone. But Gen Z — a generation raised in a post-landline universe — may disagree. They expect you — the person calling — to speak first. A recent viral tweet brought up this alarming etiquette divide. Someone who works in recruiting tweeted that she's noticed that when she calls Gen Z people (at their scheduled call time), they often wait for her to speak first instead of saying "hello." The replies to her tweet were even more eye-opening — to me, anyway: Many young people agreed that it should be the caller's responsibility to start speaking and offer a greeting, not the person answering the call. The reasons these people gave settled into two main camps: The first is the huge amount of spam calls we all receive. (They are annoying.) Often, those telemarketers or robocalls don't start until they hear someone say "hello." By remaining silent when you pick up, you can screen for a real human. Gen Z is wary of scammers Spam calls are a scourge, and it's hard to complain about anyone's tactics to avoid them. And yet … there's gotta be a better way, right? (I must note here that in my experience as someone who almost always answers unknown calls, since they may be work-related, if I say "This is Katie" instead of "Hello," it seems to stump the robocall software, which activates on the word "hello." I would recommend you all try this technique, but you'll have better results if you use your own name instead of "Katie.") Another concern is that scammers might use a recording of your voice saying "hello" to clone it for use in other scams. There is some real concern here. Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, told me there's scant data on how often this happens, but it's a real thing. "If you must respond, a neutral, non-personal greeting like 'Who is this?' may be less useful for cloning because it is less emotionally expressive and less common as a voice sample," Briedis said. (Personally, I think that's more rude than just silently breathing into the receiver, but hey.) Etiquette is changing The other reason some people are avoiding the "hello" seems to be a generational difference in etiquette. Some young people simply believe that if you're the one who is calling, you should initiate the conversation. If that makes your blood pressure start to rise, like it does with me, let's take a deep breath together and try to think about this kindly. Are young people hopelessly adrift in society, untethered from being capable of the most basic elements of communication? Is this perhaps related to the "so-called " Gen Z stare" where young people in customer service situations blankly stare back at you (or avoid eye contact, wordlessly)? I'm not saying it's not that. I think that saying "hello" when you answer the phone is normal, commonly accepted social etiquette, and not doing it can be slightly confusing for a caller. But just because something used to be common etiquette doesn't mean it has to stay that way. The telephone is a relatively recent invention in the history of human communication, as is the word "hello," which Thomas Edison encouraged as the way to start a conversation on the new invention in the 1870s. Not until the 1940s did the majority of American households have their own phone. A whole new etiquette for handling phone calls has been invented within a generation or two. Landline phones had different customs As an elder millennial, I grew up with a home landline without caller ID, answering with variations of, "Notopoulos residence, this is Katie." I've also had jobs with desk phones where strangers would call out of the blue (gasp!) and I would answer with the company name, my full name, maybe even a rote "How can I help you?" Might we have possibly missed out on the Beastie Boys' album "Hello Nasty" if not inspired by the way the receptionist at the Nasty Little Man PR firm answered the phone? But just within my (relatively) brief time as an adult, the way we use phones and what we do with them has changed drastically. Now, when you call someone, you assume you are reaching their direct personal mobile phone, not a shared family phone that other people might answer. Answering machine outgoing messages used to be an art form; now people rarely leave or check voicemail (I usually read the transcription in my iPhone's Visual Voicemail instead of actually listening to the recording). There's a new calculus we're all still muddling through about what should be a Zoom and what should be a regular phone call. I'm often texting or emailing someone several times to agree on a set time do to a five-minute phone call. When I do call someone out of the blue, I find myself apologizing for it, as if I had shown up on their doorstep unannounced at dinnertime. I enjoy waxing nostalgic about the Old Days of Landlines, but it doesn't mean any of the old ways were necessarily better. Progress marches on! Just because it has been the etiquette to say "Hello?" when you answer the phone doesn't mean it has to be that way forever. The technology of phones has changed completely. Why shouldn't the rules change with it?
